An Ocean of Stars
by ClockwerkOrange
Summary: Political unrest between the New Irken Empire and the equally new Irken Federation are sowing the seeds of a bloody civil war, and two Irkens named Tak and Zim just might get caught in the middle. ZATR; sequel to "A Space Odyssey from Beyond the Stars."
1. Skyward

**[Author's Note:**

**Yes, this is the sequel to my rather skinny-feeling story, "A Space Odyssey from Beyond the Stars". **

_**If you haven't read that, this might not make very much sense. It's still very possible to read, and it'll make far more sense as you go along. I still recommend you read Odyssey, though. I really, really do (Even though it was written without very many details, and it feels vaguely rough. Don't let it put you off, though – this story is written much, much better)**_

**I intend to make this sequel so great that light will shine out of your eyes and illuminate the general area around you. That's what I'm going for, anyway. Also, before I wrote the first chapter, my ideas for the entire story were inspired by one of those typical Hollywood-style action movie trailers. You know, like the ones with the deep-voiced narrator and the quotes from the film set to rapid movie clip changes and dramatic music? Well, use your imagination and add the dramatic music:**

_In a world not very different from our own…_

"Hey, Tak. You going to the Tiny Skwidds concert next week?"

"Wouldn't miss it for the world."

…_peaceful aliens have taken up shop, but does humanity know that they've already dodged the bullet?_

"Mister… 'Zim', I presume? We're from the Central Intelligence Agency. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

"Is this about any immigration laws?"

"Could be, actually."

_And back within the Empire, a bloody civil war is on the verge of breaking out…_

"We've had enough of the Empire in general, my _Tallest. _We've had enough of the corruption, the lies, the constant 'adjustment' to our system… but I think I speak for a great majority of us when I say that we've had enough of _you._"

"Restrain that woman immediately!"

_The only question is…_

"As Minister of Order, I assume you have no qualms with responsibility…"

"What exactly are you suggesting?"

…_when is the actual story going to begin?_

**Right now.**

**~ClockwerkOrange]**

Being a minister in the Irken Federation wasn't a simple affair. That was the foremost and most all-encompassing thought on Zil's mind as she glided freely past another crashing waterfall. The sky was mostly clear for a wide sphere of visibility around her, with a few metal beams and odd, curving pipes seemingly without any kind of support piercing through the layer of fog that obscured her vision. She was having an excellent day so far, and as she happily clicked her hand on one of the navigational buttons on her left wrist, the small, semitransparent monitor in front of her green right eye began displaying navigational data about her current location on Solania. Her glowing green translucent wings sparkled briefly as she began to pick up speed. She wasn't running late to her next objective – far from it, considering that she was ten minutes ahead of schedule – but she just felt like semi-abusing one of her perks as a Head Minister of the Federation. All members of the Federation that were permanently stationed on Solania were given PAK energy wings, but the speed and power they offered changed with the end user's rank within it. _Needless to say,_ Zil thought happily as the first bit of adrenaline began coursing through her veins, _I'm glad that I'm a Head Minister._

"_Ah, Head Minister,_" a familiar voice greeted through the AirCOM card added to her PAK, "_you're up rather early today._"

Zil rolled her eyes and held down the transmit button on her left wrist, right next to the eyepiece controls. "I'm always up early," she stated dismissively, letting her speed ebb slightly. She effortlessly banked around another waterfall that seemed to have no beginning or end. The pillars of water were necessary to maintain the moisture in the air, considering that there wasn't a natural source of water on the 'planet' of Solania – well, there wasn't a planet, either. "What is it this time, Led?" she murmured.

"_Slow down a bit more; I'm approaching from eight by eight._"

_No explanation, as usual,_ Zil thought grimly. She glanced behind her at the rough coordinates Led had given her, and she – upon slowing down a bit more – saw the glow of Led's dark blue PAK wings emerge from the fog. After a few more seconds, she could clearly see Led rising up to her with a wide smile. "Good morning, Senior Minister," she said calmly, now gliding slowly next to the newcomer.

"It's always so formal with you, Zil," Led said, voice eerily clear in the still, misty air of the morning sky. "You need to loosen up," she added, but then bit her lip. "I saw you doing some interesting maneuvers via your AirCOM positioning tags…" She glanced over at Zil with her wide blue eyes and a playful grin. She shrugged at Zil's lack of response, and continued. "Ah, whatever. Why're you flying so high today, anyway?"

"Oh, I don't know… just figured I might drop in on the Minister of Correction to gather some statistics," Zil replied, stretching her arms in either direction. She sighed. "Bureaucratic nonsense of the blandest variety, I might add."

"No, Zil," Led said with a shake of her head. "The Minister of Corrections' office is much lower than where we are." She glanced at Zil. "Wait… did you say 'drop in'?" Led asked, letting her expression turn sour.

Zil smirked, and quickly keyed in the request and confirmation into the thin button panel on her wrist to deactivate her wings. They shimmered briefly, but then faded; once gravity had taken over, she began to fall.

"_Zil!_" Led shouted, waving down at her irritably. "You'd just better show up for lunch this time!"

"Ah, whatever," Zil said, words completely consumed by the wind rushing past her. She flew down through the fog, arms tucked neatly against the sides of her body. She leaned quickly to the right, avoiding another one of the rushing waterfalls – this one flowing _upward_ with the assistance of a shaped gravity well – and then decided to tap the small, black rectangular button on her right glove. A strip of metal shot out of it, and then unfolded into an odd, sickle-shaped object. Another bit of metal unfolded itself into the palm of her hand, and she tightly fitted her claws around it. Still eying the navigational data in her eyepiece, she held her breath and focused intently on the object that had just come into view. With a loud clang, her sickle-shaped metal object came in contact with the steep rail, and her speed began to slowly lessen as it leveled off.

"_Done falling?_" came Led's unenthusiastic response, once again through the AirCOM.

"…Yes," Zil breathed, panting heavily.

Led sighed. "_One day you're going to kill yourself using those old zip-rail systems._"

"Oh, be quiet. They're still maintained to the point of being able to carry heavy cargo, and I happen to find them a great distraction from my work," she said flatly, pressing the release button on her glove. The zip-rail connector promptly folded straight, causing her to drop the two feet onto the airborne platform that was the Minister of Corrections' office.

"_Yeah, well. I'd never be able to just… _fall_ like that." _Unbeknownst to Zil, she shuddered. "_Just take it easy. Oh, and I was serious about lunch!_"

Zil folded the zip-rail connector back into its springy position in her glove. "Alright, I'll be there," Zil assured her, now walking calmly down the sidewalk of the floating area that seemed like a piece of a city ripped up from the ground and left in the sky. With a final goodbye, she terminated the call and stopped at the only building in the little snippet of an urban zone. "Well, time to hit the bricks," she said with a sigh.

**(._.)**

"Pepper? Mint? I'm home!" Tak called, closing the door behind her.

She flipped back her vibrant blue hair, and tossed her sweater that she'd had slung across her shoulder onto the couch. After collapsing promptly on top of it, she saw Mint lean out of the kitchen with a piece of toast hanging from her mouth.

Noticing Tak, Mint blinked her bright green eyes twice. "Hiya," she greeted, voice muffled by bread. She abruptly dropped the piece of toast into her right hand. Chewing thoughtfully, she glanced back into the kitchen. "Zim's in the lab reading the news with Pepper, I think."

Mint and her near-clone Pepper had adopted a sort of a big sister-style authority over Tak and Zim, informing them that if they were to live on Earth, they'd might as well do it right – stay in school, keep up appearances – no one involved in their household has any reason to think that just because Zim wasn't especially trying to conquer Earth anymore, humanity wouldn't be just a little upset that aliens from over the stars were living on their planet. They'd decided to keep that little tidbit concealed from the masses. "Excellent. I'll speak to him in a moment," she said, tapping thoughtfully on her chin.

"Oh, and welcome back," Mint added with a smile before disappearing back into the kitchen.

Tak had been out visiting the homeworld. After Red and Purple's noble deaths and her parents' – for she was one of the rare legitimately-born Irkens of her time – subsequent rise to Tallest-ship, Tak had wanted to visit Irk both to see her parents and check up on how the Empire was firsthand. Since her parents – Zie and Quentin – had modified the succession rules for the ruler of the Irken Empire to let the Tallest select the most capable ruler to succeed them, assassinations were rendered pointless; they were, technically, going to be the last Almighty 'Tallests'. During her visit, she had seen how much was changing in the Empire. With most of the corrupt Imperial Council killed by Red and Purple in their detonation of the Massive, her parents were able to institute a variety of new acts almost immediately. All members of the Irken Empire no longer had to be forced into the military, all current disputes, invader operations, and military exploits were halted and taken into reevaluation in the pursuit of peace, and several planets had been given the power to regulate themselves with their own systems of government – as long as they didn't threaten the Irken Empire, at least.

"Tak!" Zim called as he walked into the room. "Ah," he said once he spied her. "A good trip, I assume?"

Zim. Not really that long ago it would've been safe to say that Tak would rather have torn out his throat with her teeth than shake his hand. However, after several different events she had come to reevaluate her opinion on him – not to mention most of her life. Her flat out hatred had given way to grudging tolerance, and once they'd finally admitted their inner feelings to themselves – and one another – things had started looking up. Now that they'd moved back to Earth, Tak found herself happy enough with domesticated life. Still, she craved familiar sensation deep inside – the front lines! Battle, victory, dominance! It was easy to make peace, but hard to maintain it – Irkens were just those kinds of creatures, in the end. Still, as long as she had Zim, she was… happy?

"Yes, it was fantastic," Tak said, but frowned upon hearing Zim's halfhearted "Oh, great". She was pretty sure that Zim had wanted to go, but Pepper had advised that the two of them missing from school might draw unwanted attention – or embarrassment, at the least – and recommended that Zim stay. One does not argue with Pepper. "How was… er, how are you?"

"Good," Zim replied quickly, taking a seat next to Tak after she'd shuffled her legs out of the way. "Did you land the cruiser up…" he trailed off, and instead pointed toward the roof while staring at his boots. He slowly let his arm drop by his side.

"Yes," Tak answered. She slowly let her hand drift into Zim's, which he clasped, but it almost seemed a feeble effort on his part. "I missed you," she stated blankly, but blushed to a light blue soon afterward. She glanced away, hiding her face.

Zim managed a "Mhm" in return. There were a few seconds of silence. "Where's MiMi?" he asked, looking at Tak briefly. He dropped his gaze when she was about to answer.

"She's just doing a once-over of the cruiser…" Tak replied evenly. "What about GIR?"

"He's probably just breaking something," Zim murmured.

"Oh."


	2. Before the Storm

**Pendragon, Capital of Irk  
Capital Square**

"The big day," a male Irken said offhandedly to the female Irken passing him. She stopped in her tracks and glanced back at him. He nodded to her in greeting.

"It is," she returned. She shifted her weight slightly, and the duffel bag strapped across her right arm fell. She caught it with her left hand, and handed it to the male Irken abruptly. He took it, and beckoned for her and three other Irkens who had slowly approached them to follow.

**Pendragon, Capital of Irk  
Meeting Chamber of Imperial Representatives**

"This day marks the fifteenth meeting of the provisional Imperial Representative Council," a red-eyed Irken muttered from the operations booth. "From this announcement onward, all interaction will be broadcasted live on the Irken News Network." He clicked the record button, and raised the microphone to himself once again. "The Almighty Tallest will begin the meeting presently," he said quietly, and then shut off his microphone. He hurriedly changed the input from his microphone to the microphones of the expansive meeting chamber that more closely resembled the United Nations than any before-seen Irken institution.

A few seconds after the announcement, Almighty Tallests Zie and Quentin appeared in the center of the roughly upside-down terraced dome of the room; balconies had been built on top and several seats were at the bottom for representatives from both conquered and free worlds near Irk. Each different species of ambassador had their own section of table with the name of their planet on it. Thankfully, they all knew how to speak the Irken language.

"Hello, friends," Quentin stated. He had a habit of saying that before every one of the fourteen meetings that had taken place before this one. He wasn't smiling, but had a pleasant demeanor about him even as he stood silently, glancing at Zie.

"The following matters need to be discussed," Zie continued, keeping her grey-eyed stare bone dry as she swept the room with her gaze, "The famine on Delorobia, the energy crisis on Vort, a 'transfer of power' problem on Solania, and the ongoing negotiations with Meekrob."

"Delorobian representative, you have the floor," Quentin offered, nodding in the direction of the positively ancient-looking dark green-skinned alien with vaguely Irken-looking eyes.

"Thank you," he said, raising his wrinkled hand in acknowledgement. His brow furrowed deeply, further creasing his features. "As spoken of in the traditional Delorobian tales from long ago, the power of the decaying flame has tainted our soil, causing the crops to die. The scientists refer to it as 'nuclear fallout' from the terrible days of war. We would like to beseech the empire to assist in an effort to make our land whole again." He nodded his head as a gesture of respect.

"It would greatly benefit both of our civilizations if your planet was open to production and trade once again," Zie stated. "I will make sure that a team is dispatched to your planet. They will be armed with knowledge to impart to your technicians; the supplies to fix your problem will be given freely as well."

"Delorobia thanks you, Almighty Tallest of the Irken Empire," he murmured into his microphone with a subtle bow of his head.

"I believe I'm next," a familiar individual informed everyone. He had a slightly higher chair than a few other ambassadors due to his diminutive stature.

"Lard Nar of the Vortian provisional government, state your business," Quentin said coolly into his microphone.

"Well, thanks to your empire enslaving the entire populace of my planet and throwing us into research prison, we obviously didn't have a very efficient system in place when we were suddenly released," he muttered, eying everyone around him shiftily. "We appreciate the sudden change of heart from the Irken Empire, and we would like to maintain that everything given to us will be paid back in return…"

"If that is the will of the Vortian state, so be it," Zie acknowledged.

Lard Nar nodded his head, and then continued. "Well!" he said, and then cleared his throat. "Our planet is in the midst of an energy crisis caused by a lack of well-maintained power grids to support our nearly-rebuilt cities. We require some basic, raw materials to make superconductors and other essentials until we can resume our mining operations in the asteroid belt."

"Granted," Zie stated. She paused for a moment, and then added, "In accordance with your request, we will be expecting our initial assistance to be paid back in full."

"Of course," Nar replied. He stared forward with a blank expression. "That's it," he added, and sat down.

"Now, would the representative from Solania please speak?" Zie asked, glancing up at an Irken in an unusual black and dark gray cloth uniform. She was standing in the balcony section in her own alcove area like the other few ambassadors from that height.

She adjusted her tie. "We… seem to be dealing with a problem in the transfer of power," she stated, eyeing Zie oddly with her extremely rare snow-white eyes. "We'd like some information about that."

"Perhaps you know more than we do on the subject," Quentin replied cordially enough. "After all, the only Irkens that have heard about whatever problem you're facing live on Solania – I believe that was the first artificially-made 'planet' with proper atmosphere… isn't the entire planet just atmosphere contained in a sphere with buildings floating?"

"Yes," she said curtly. "The issue lies not in _our_ planet; it lies in _yours_." Upon receiving nothing but mild puzzled expressions from the Tallest and the other ambassadors, she continued. "My planet, Solania, is not alone. Solania was the first Irken colony in recent times that did not establish itself on a world with intelligent life on it already. Naturally, we have an Irken-only population at this point. However, we have spread from Solania to two other nearby colonies that have sprung off of it."

"Why is this information relevant?" Quentin asked curiously, cocking his head slightly. "And… the only way your population could have increased that quickly is if you abused the current cloning system… we've been trying to trim that back, not increase it…"

"It is relevant, my _Tallest_, because we are the Irken Federation, and we do not serve you anymore."

Silence in the room.

"I'm sorry," Zie began, attempting extremely hard to maintain her composure. "Could you repeat what you just said?" Her right antenna curled slightly.

"We have broken off from the Irken Empire!" she called, striking a pose by throwing out her arms in either direction. "We've had enough of the Empire in general, my _Tallest. _We've had enough of the corruption, the lies, the constant 'adjustment' to our system… but I think I speak for a great majority of us when I say that we've had enough of _you._"

Zie looked like something in her head was about to pop. She tore her furious gray eyes away from the rebel, and feverishly looked about the meeting room. Ambassadors were glancing around uneasily in the still air, and Quentin was staring at the woman with a blank expression.

"Corruption was completely eradicated after Tallest Red and Tallest Purple gave their lives for a new empire," Quentin noted calmly. "The adjustments are necessary for the empire to survive, and we haven't told any lies to anyone."

"Oh, man, this is great," the Irken News Network operator whispered from his booth. He switched to a mobile input, and grabbed his camera.

"That was a lie right there!" the woman replied, now standing above her table with a maddening smirk. "The leaders change – as we have seen, the Tallest are merely figureheads for the empire while the real powers-that-be do their dirty work from behind the scenes."

"That used to be the case," Quentin began.

"Smoke and mirrors!" she continued, waving a finger at him. The INN cameraman zoomed in on her face; in response, she smiled at the camera, and then focused her attention back upon Quentin and Zie. "You two overthrew the old Tallest in quite a roundabout way, wouldn't you say? Well, now that the Irken Federation has made its existence known, I think it's time to show off our intentions." After glancing at the cameraman, she snapped her fingers.

Several members of the council snapped out of their chairs, and only then did Zie realize that a few of the ambassadors were Irkens when non-Irken members should have been in their places. Zie reacted quickly, raising her wrist-mounted communicator to her mouth.

"This isn't a drill, et cetera, et cetera," she muttered, voice echoing in the silent room. "The Almighty Tallest are in danger – unknown number of Irken hostiles…" she trailed off, and surprised the Irken woman – the leader, she supposed – by rolling her eyes and shutting off the communicator.

"Well, aren't you going to scream for your security detail to get here?" she asked, head cocked to one side.

"As a show of goodwill, I had any and all Irken military members vacate the area," Zie murmured, stretching her neck to the left and right with two small cracks. After she her eyes opened, she glared at the woman. "Who are you?"

"Ah, who am I? A friend from long ago or an enemy? Supporter or conspirator…?" she asked, pacing around her small balcony area. Her smile slowly died down. "I was once involved in the Imperial Office of Intelligence," she muttered. "It matters not who I am. It matters who _we_ are. However, you may refer to me as the Chairwoman of the Irken Federation – or, you could always call me Nie."

"I've had enough of this," Zie growled. She eyed Quentin.

"Someone!" he called, glancing around the room. "Restrain that woman immediately!"

The room slowed down in Zie's perception of time as the Irkens she supposed were conspiring with Nie reached for what she supposed would be firearms. Reacting instinctively, she half-threw Quentin on the ground below the metal counter, and then proceeded to smash the miniature glass holo-map mounted on the top of it. When the assailants nearly had their sights doubtlessly trained on Zie's head, she had grabbed an especially large and jagged piece of the shattered device.

"Open fire!" Nie shouted, pointing directly at Zie.

Zie wasted no time in firmly planting her hand on the counter and throwing herself over it. She rolled onto the ground just in time for a few bolts of hissing plasma to make contact with the counter she had just been behind. Ducked behind one of the ambassadors' desks – they'd all scrambled out of their seats and streamed into the halls outside of the room; even the audio and video feed had been cut by the fleeing operator – Zie peeked from around it to see the arrangement of the rebel soldiers. She grabbed a planet name tag and tossed it into the air; it exploded in a blue splash of plasma while Zie ran straight through the smoke and buried the jagged glass into the nearest gunman's throat.

While he began falling backward, she seized him by the side of the PAK and his right shoulder and spun him around. After taking several shots in his service to the empire as an Irken shield, she let him drop and gurgle on the floor. She seized the combat knife dangling from his Invader-esque uniform and held it before her. She again peeked over the desk at the armed Irkens, and this time she snatched the downed assassin's pistol. She held her arm above the desk and fired the weapon blindly in the general direction of her would-be killers.

"My arm!" one of them screamed, and she heard the distinctive smash and avalanche of someone knocking stuff off of a table.

"Why'd you push me on the floor?" Quentin hissed, suddenly next to her.

Zie rolled her eyes. "I thought you'd get in the way."

"Give me one of those," he muttered. After being handed the pistol, he dived past the staircase-like area where most of the conspirators had assembled, and loosed two shots before assuming a position behind the cover of the opposing table.

Seeing an opportunity, Zie flat-out ran to the next of the seven remaining assassins and slashed at his wrist. He dropped his weapon, clutching his bleeding hand with his other one. Backing out of the way of another one of her feral strikes, he attempted to pull out his own knife. She seized his wrist quickly and jammed her blade in it, plucking his knife out of his hand while leaving her own with him.

"_Gah!_" he shouted, now completely disarmed with two highly-injured hands. After getting a bolt of Quentin's laser fire to the chest, he went down.

"What are you doing?" Nie shouted. "She must not be allowed to live! Kill her, _kill her!_"

While the other soldiers were preoccupied with backing away from Zie who was slowly managing to advance through the tables, Quentin had managed to shoot down a few, leaving only three.

"Why is she still alive?" Nie yelled as another soldier fell victim to a horrible gouging from Zie. "You fools," she growled. After hastily searching for the exit staircase, she quickly made for it.

Out of the two gunmen left, one of them had just been grazed by a semi-well-aimed plasma projectile from Quentin. His PAK clacked against the metal wall, and he clutched his head where the burning-hot plasma had slightly touched it. Zie wasted no time in dashing toward him and pushing her blade deep into his chest. His eyes opened fully, and he emitted a pitiful, shuddering gasp before her blade slid in more and he fell on his side, writing miserably on the floor.

Needless to say, the last soldier was a little flustered.

Breaking out of his trance since the scene began, his eyes bulged when Zie stared at him. "Don't… don't _h-hurt me…_" he whispered, quickly dropping his weapon and backing up against the wall. "I'll do anything… j-just _please_ let me go. I have information!"

Just then, a squad of Irken elite soldiers burst into the room from the perimeter hallway. "My Tallest!" the captain shouted, but then trailed off at the scene before him. The troops accompanying him gaped.

"Situation has been handled!" Quentin called from behind a table.

Zie nodded. "This man appears to have information about a new threat to the empire."

"N-new threat?" the captain asked, weaving between bodies. "And who might that be?"

Zie grimaced.

**Washington D.C., Capital of the United States of America  
The Suburbs**

"Tak, I want you to be careful," Pepper warned.

"Oh, quit babying me," Tak muttered. She paused at where the living room met the hall when she glanced over at Pepper. She was still looking at her firmly, now with crossed arms. "Yes, okay. I'll be careful. It's only for a while, you know."

Pepper smirked. "Yes, I know," she said, relaxing a bit. "Your visits to the homeworld seem to be getting more frequent."

Tak frowned. "Well, they asked me to come this time."

"Yeah," Pepper replied, and shrugged. "Okay, just make sure to call Zim. He's been getting uncharacteristically mopey lately."

Tak sighed, and started walking down the hallway.

"Hey, Tak. You going to the Tiny Skwidds concert next week?" Pepper asked quickly.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Tak replied with a smile. She'd definitely be back before then. Probably.

As she continued down the hallway, she knew that once she got to the hangar Zim would probably be waiting for her.

_To say goodbye._

_Again._

**(._.)**

"Do it."

_Knock knock._

The house's front door opened slightly, and someone peeked through. "Yes?" he asked impatiently.

"Mister… 'Zim', I presume? We're from the Central Intelligence Agency. We'd like to ask you a few questions."

There was a pause while Zim looked over the speaker. He was a white male in his late twenties with hair almost completely shaved off. He was wearing sunglasses and a suit. The two accompanying him wore suits as well.

"Is this about any immigration laws?" Zim asked from the crack in the door. He grinned at his joke.

The gentleman in the shades smirked. "Could be, actually," he replied; there was no emotion in his voice in spite of the slight smile. After adjusting his tie, he looked up pointedly at Zim. "Mind if we come in, Mr. Zim?"

After another tense moment of silence, Zim pulled the door open and gestured for the CIA agents to step inside. "Please, make yourselves at home," he suggested as he walked to the sofa with a gesture for them to sit. He absently touched his hair – probably checking to make sure his disguise was on. Fortunately, it was.

After the three sat – the two without sunglasses were shooting each other quizzical glances – Mint walked calmly into the room wearing a dark green t-shirt and flannel pajama pants. She was taking another bite out of the bright red apple she had been snacking on when she noticed the well-dressed people sitting in the house. She froze.

"Um…" Zim said, glancing at Mint. The agents stared at her blankly; the one to the left's jaw dropped.

Mint was certainly not in her disguise. After slowly adjusting to the situation, she finished taking the bite and chewed slowly. Her right antenna twitched as she tried to make sense of what was going on.

"Sooooo," she said, glancing between the awed expressions. "How ya doing?"

"Mint, these are some agents from the Central Intelligence Agency," Zim explained in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Oh, great," Mint murmured, glancing the other direction.

"I'm pretty sure they're not going to have us detained or anything, considering they came here specifically to see me. From that, I can guess that they know of my condition… Mr. Shades' response to my question was enough to deduce that," Zim stated.

The aforementioned agent stood up. "My name is Foley. Agent Foley." He smiled. "And I have a feeling that you're going to make a great addition to our team."

"What?" Zim asked blankly.

"Allow me to explain. The Central Intelligence Agency tends to do a lot of work overseas. You could say that we keep things in balance worldwide; saving civilization comes to mind." He paused, and looked intently between Mint and Zim. "When we intercepted an alien broadcast, we thought it was a joke at first. After focusing some long-range radio dishes in the general area, we started picking up a bit more information. I think it's safe to say that America is well on its way to becoming an intergalactic superpower."

"When was this?" Zim asked flatly.

Foley smirked again. "Yes, you're a sharp one. This was several months ago, and we've been studying and learning the entire time. We're already way ahead of every other civilization on Earth, and now we're just trying to get into the game."

"It's not as simple as that; you don't just 'get into the game'. What's the real reason?" Mint asked curiously.

"Well, you're all pretty sharp, then," Foley noted. "Apparently, and this is just within the past week, something drastic has happened between a few powerful groups. Communications have nearly flat-lined after the event, which is probably – and I'm just assuming – why you haven't heard." Mint and Zim's silence confirmed his theory.

"Tak left a week ago," Mint whispered from behind Zim.

"A group known as the Irken Empire and a group known as the Irken Federation – they sound like a separatist group – have declared open war on each other. Apparently the Federation's response has been much more powerful than anticipated, and now a significant portion of the galaxy has become their battlefield."

"And the reason you contacted us?" Zim asked carefully, already knowing the answer.

"Earth is within that significant portion, Mr. Zim," Foley replied.


End file.
